In ur base, eatin' ur f00dz!

January 24, 2010

If I Knew You Were Coming...

That, dear reader (I know there's at least one of you out there), is my first ever made-from-scratch cake, including made-from-scratch frosting.

The recipes for both came out of the book that came with my much wished-for Kitchenaid Artisan stand mixer.

I made two changes to the cake recipe: it called for all-purpose flour and I used cake flour, because I've been wanting to see how much of a difference it makes. And it called for shortening, but I used butter, because that's what I had on hand and I didn't feel like going out to get shortening. Also, I like butter.

This wasn't the first time I've made frosting from scratch, but it's the first time I've ever melted chocolate. Here's a handy tip - melamine prep bowls? Not microwave-safe. Ow. Other than that, though, the chocolate-melting went well.

Something else I learned is that butter takes longer to soften at room temperature than I expected. The cake came out a little dense, but it tastes damn good. The frosting was more than a bit too sweet - next time, with this cake, I'm going to look for a recipe for a dark chocolate frosting instead. Believe me, when I think something is too sweet, it will make the teeth of normal people leap out of their heads and run away screaming.